TANDBERG Television (News - Alert) has stated that its MPEG-4 AVC HD solutions are now deployed by DIRECTV for their local high-definition (HD) channel expansion. Both companies say this deployment has further strengthened their partnerships and has also boosted their HD market value.

 

DIRECTV is a satellite television service provider. TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson (News - Alert) Group, claims to be delivering the multimedia technology and expertise that is moving digital video forward. Their advanced compression systems, on-demand or content distributions are used by broadcasters, operators and programmers to deliver new viewer experiences and advertising opportunities.

 

According to DIRECTV, it has the comprehensive HD services providing local HD channels to 100 local U.S. markets, representing more than 83 percent of U.S. TV households. DIRECTV plans to provide local HD broadcast channels in more than 121 cities, representing approximately 88 percent of U.S. TV households, by the end of 2008, and has chosen TANDBERG Television's MPEG-4 AVC encoding platform for the continued expansion.

 

"We continue to deliver on our goal of providing the best television experience, including the most extensive HD programming in America," said Hanno Basse, vice president of broadcast systems engineering, for DIRECTV. "We started our HD MPEG-4 AVC journey with TANDBERG Television and consequently, we were the first to market, quickly deploying ahead of our competitors. We are pleased to continue our association with TANDBERG Television as we move into the next stage of HD expansion."

 

DIRECTV will be effectively using the features like IP statistical multiplexing, 8VSB input and control of up to three different outputs (MPEG-4 AVC HD/SD and MPEG-2 SD) built in with the newly released EN8095 encoders (part of the EN8090 MPEG-4 AVC SD/HD encoding family). These encoders can boost the capacity of available networks and provide more bandwidth efficiency as well as the ability to capture and rebroadcast terrestrial HD channels.

 

EN8090 encoders enable operators to deliver HD and SD multi-channel and single channel MPEG-4 AVC services across cable, satellite, telco and terrestrial networks. The TANDBERG encoders use a comprehensive tool-set of advanced compression video processing features, combined with new pre-processing techniques.

 

TANDBERG Television has stated that they strongly believe HDTV as a key service differentiator and revenue generator for operators such as DIRECTV and are excited that their technology could provide enough help to DIRECTV’s MPEG-4 AVC HD roll-out.

 

Company officials say that TANDBERG Television’s HDTV journey started over 10 years ago when they launched the world’s first MPEG-2 HD encoder, and has continued with DIRECTV’s deployment of the industry’s advanced MPEG-4 AVC HD compression platform.